Chariot Tyre

This once circular tyre was forged from a number of iron bars. Its purpose was to protect the rim of
a wooden spoked wheel. The craft of the Iron Age wheelwright combined the skills of carpentry and
metalworking.

No wooden wheel-parts survived at Llyn Cerrig Bach. Examples of complete wheels are known from
La Tène.

Careful measurement of the thickness, profiles and size of the tyres and tyre fragments in this hoard
has enabled the conclusion to be drawn, that between ten and twenty vehicles including chariots were
deposited in the lake. The survival of chariot fittings helped to build an accurate reconstruction of what
a Celtic chariot would have looked like. Nave hoops surrounded the central axle piece of the wheel,
whilst lynch pins stopped the wheel falling off the chariot axle.

It is probable that the wheel was regarded as a potent symbol to Iron Age peoples. Wheels may have
been linked to notions of time measured in cycles or the wheel may have been a symbol of the sun.
Thus daily, lunar, agricultural and life 'cycles' would have, to these people, been imbued with
significance.

The chariot tyre is the size of a bus wheel, 950mm in diameter. It weighs 5280g.